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Alumni to discuss global careers

By Becca Heistad '09
April 3, 2009

From a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has practiced medicine extensively in Tanzania, Haiti and Peru to a state department officer who has served throughout the Middle East, Asia and Africa, St. Olaf College alumni have developed careers that know no borders.

Several of those alumni will visit campus Monday, April 6, for a panel discussion and informational sessions on international careers. The "Oles Gone Global" event, organized by the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL), aims to provide information to the increasing number of St. Olaf students who want to establish international careers or focus on global issues.

"Hearing alumni share the details of their career paths helps students realize that there are many and varied ways to shape a liberal arts education into a career with global impact," says CEL Director Patricia Smith, who notes that the event also provides students with networking opportunities. The panel will feature alumni with careers in human rights, global diplomacy, international development, medicine, environmental policy, development and entrepreneurship.

The first "Oles Gone Global" session runs from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Monday and features in-depth conversations hosted by the alumni at separate locations in Buntrock Commons. (Room locations and information about alumni below.) A panel discussion on international careers will be held later that evening from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Buntrock Commons Sun Ballroom. The alumni will share how their international careers developed, what their work entails, and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to build a successful international career.

Panelists

  • Anders Davidson '89
    Director of business development and innovation at the Honorary Norwegian Consulate General
    Buntrock Commons 221
    Davidson has the unique challenge of developing opportunities for Norwegian businesses in the United States. Davidson previously worked as a product manager for Microsoft and as a business development manager at 3M.
  • Jennifer Eikren '98
    Senior program manager at The Rights Practice
    Buntrock Commons 144
    Since 2001 Eikren has worked on a variety of human rights issues in East Asia and China. Her current work at the London-based nonprofit organization The Rights Practice focuses on issues related to public participation in decision-making and access to justice in China.
  • Chloe Stull-Lane '07
    Research consultant and intern with Save the Children's food security unit in Ethiopia
    Buntrock Commons 143
    Stull-Lane recently completed a semester interning and conducting research on food security with Save the Children in Ethiopia. She will return to Africa upon completion of her master's degree in international development and management from Lund University in Sweden this June.
  • Bruce Nelson '75
    Foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department
    Buntrock Commons Heritage Room
    Nelson is a career foreign service officer and has served in a variety of positions in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. His most recent assignment was as political-governance officer in Iraq. He is preparing for a new assignment as a political adviser to NATO forces based in Afghanistan. Nelson's other assignments have included diplomatic positions in Okinawa, Karachi, Shanghai, Khartoum, Amman, and Dubai, and he is fluent in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic.
  • Carrie Nordeen '94
    Fishery policy analyst with the National Marine Fisheries Service, New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils
    Buntrock Commons 220
    Environmental policy development requires the participation of stakeholders with varying personal and organizational interests. Nordeen works with "management councils," gathering input from the public, academics, lobbyists, economic groups, enforcement personnel and government agencies in a participatory process unique to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
  • Bill Stauffer '88
    Physician and assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota Medical School and technical adviser for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    Buntrock Commons Gold Ballroom
    Known by many of his friends and colleagues as the "travel doc," Stauffer has practiced medicine extensively overseas, mostly in Tanzania, Haiti and Peru. He spent 2007-08 in Tanzania developing a nationwide respiratory disease surveillance network and working in the Burundi/Rwandan refugee camps. Stauffer is also the director of an eight-week global health course taught by the University of Minnesota, which focuses on refugee and immigrant health issues.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.